“Is that all you do, sit at your desk and look at your computer all day? Gee, why don’t you go out and do something interesting and come back and tell me about it.”

Like whoa grandma! She’s never been one to pull her punches but this one was a surgical swipe.

Grandma Maggie’s had a cruel summer. Enduring a potent one, two punch from a bout of dehydration and a bad mix of new meds that sent her packing on a weekend getaway at the local community hospital resort. Fortunately, she is on the mend. Back home, lucid and as feisty a Chihuahua after a Fedex delivery guy.

A few weeks ago, as my wife and cousin were having an amped-up dinner time chat about how to help grandma bulk back up to her pre-hospital weight, my grandma made eye contact with me and gently hit me with the aforementioned statement:

“Is that all you do?”

Now, sitting at my computer isn’t all I do, but man, it sure is the mother load of it. Enough that work and projects seem to dominate the conversation whenever my grandma Maggie or anyone asks: “what’s new?” Sure, I eventually get out and go on road trips, sleep with the bears in the high sierras and enjoy my southern California backyard. However, to grandma Maggie, these occasional adventures seem like dullsville. Her stories trump mine—no contest.

You see, she lived through The Depression. Not to make light of our Great Recession, but from what she tells me, the depression sounds a’lot worse. Growing up, she helped her father make and deliver “moonshine” during the prohibition. She had to pose as an American Indian to get an education. Later, she picked up and moved on her own from the small town of Ajo, Arizona to the sunny California shores of Santa Monica. However, another big event called World War II was happening as she spent her nights working as a “Rosie Riveter” in a factory making fighter planes and other wartime accessories.

Despite the series of gloomy events, she often talks of these times with glee. She tells belly aching tales of mistakenly selling moonshine to an Indian tribe and the swinging, big band twenty-four hour dance party downtown Los Angeles once was during the war.

Yes, fragile and sweet grandma Maggie has seen a’lot. However, her path wasn’t the one of the mobile jet-setter we see today. Hers was one of making lemonade out of lemons. Taking the cards dealt, adapting and moving on. No achievements, awards or job titles included. They are all about life experiences and the relationships with the people built along the way. To call her or her stories interesting is an understatement.

Originally, I was drafting this newsletter series with the aim of sharing with you a large toolbox of tips and methods to experiment with. However, instead of only applying them to branding and design projects, I am have decided to use the process and time it clears to do things my grandmother would consider “interesting.” So, every Wednesday, for the next 12 weeks, I will post on my blog one of the variety of tips that have given me the most productive and creative bang for my buck. I will then up my ante on Friday, and share with you how I used my tips and the process to make my life and business “more interesting,” for the sake of better conversations to share with my aging grandma while she’s still with me.

I can’t tell you where this will end but perhaps it could be the interesting drug grandma Maggie seemed to take on her life’s journey. I hope you’ll tag along.